4 Goals set by New MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab

IBM and MIT have teamed up and created an AI research lab. Spanning 10 years, the $240 million USD joint research initiative is centered on 4 focal research areas.

In the era of Industry 4.0, the conventional barriers between sectors, businesses, and even academia will dissolve and in their place will a collaborative model will emerge.

In this new environment, the advantage will go to those who know how to reinvent competitiveness and industrial imagination and find new growth fields–all while working together.

As a renowned research institution and a leading tech company respectively, MIT and IBM are adopting an Industry 4.0 spirit, understanding that communication and mutual effort toward objectives and activities will be key success factors.

MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab: Pushing AI Frontiers

IBM has over 1,000 researchers working to advance AI science, and as if that’s not enough, the company is seeking further help at one of the world’s most prestigious universities.

In a press release, IBM announced its partnership with MIT in the field of AI by creating a joint research lab.

Based in Cambridge, the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab is presented as one of the most important industry-university collaborations in the fast-growing AI field.

With a total budget of $240 million USD over ten years, the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab will bring together about 100 top AI researchers and specialists to work on new software and hardware primarily for consumer tech, healthcare, and cybersecurity.

MIT professors and students will propose innovative solutions that would be undertaken in the lab and would eventually spin them up into start-ups, as IBM will surely want to enable commercialization of the technologies that come out of the lab.

MIT and IBM researchers will have 4 key areas to focus on: AI Algorithms, the Physics of AI, the Application of AI to industries, and Advancing shared prosperity through AI.

Thus, in addition to AI researchers, physicists, economists and high-tech specialists would also contribute to close the loop.

The 4 Goals set by the New MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab

1. AI Software

The development of new AI algorithms that enable neural networks to go beyond current single-use to more generalized and versatile applications. AI systems should also be more transparent, or, in other words, AI should be able to explain how it managed to get a certain response.

2. AI Hardware

The hardware goals of this collaboration will focus on the creation of materials and devices dedicated to handling the AI software, including those that explore the intersection between machine learning and quantum computing. The data resources offered by quantum systems are immense, and the data management potential of AI is equally as impressive.

A marriage of these two approaches is a meta-goal of current tech.

3. New Industrial AI Application

The development and adaptation of new AI possibilities for industries such cybersecurity, personalized healthcare, the privacy of medical data, and image analysis.

These applications have already begun to form. For instance, AI is already helping militaries and government agencies search social media for security threats.

Part of MIT and IBM’s collaboration will take these applications to the next level.

4. AI Shared Prosperity

Under the umbrella of “shared prosperity”, the IBM-MIT collaboration will be looking for more general applications of AI tech benefits. That is, the research lab will look for ways to leverage AI to improve the lives of people everywhere–across nations, economic backgrounds, and enterprises.

In short, the lab will seek to use AI to make the world a better place for everyone.

What are you most excited about regarding this collaboration?